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Chapter One - the Gospel

What does it mean to be “right with God?” Notice

that I’m purposely avoiding the word “righteous” or

“righteousness” because that word is generally

packaged up with a lot of baggage associated

with SELF-righteousness. (We’ll address that later

on.)

What does it mean to be “right with God?”

The book of Romans offers us a comprehensive

investigation into being right with God. This theme

is the banner of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

In the introductory greeting of Romans 1, Paul

identifies himself as a servant (or bondservant) of

Christ.

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an

apostle, set apart for the gospel of God...”

(Romans 1:1)

As a bondservant, Paul identifies himself as an

ultimately-devoted servant-by-choice. A

bondservant is a former servant who has served

well. Furthermore a bondservant has been offered

his freedom. However, out of devotion to his

master, a bondservant is different than a servant in

that he has chosen to remain on as a servant to his

master. This decision to remain a servant when

freedom is offered is the ultimate submission to a

master.

This is how Paul describes himself with regards to

Christ.

Paul then refers to the fact that he has seen Jesus.

The “qualification” of being an apostle is to have

seen Jesus. Paul includes this in his greeting as a

form of reference, giving himself credit as being

called (or selected) as an apostle of Christ.

Finally, he is “set apart for the gospel of God…” This

refers to Paul’s distinct charge to preach the

gospel. This is key because the gospel is the KEY to

becoming right with God. More specifically, the

gospel is the only way to be right with God.

“...which he promised beforehand through his

prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son,

who was descended from David according to the

flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in

power according to the Spirit of holiness by his

resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

through whom we have received grace and

apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith

for the sake of his name among all the nations,

including you who are called to belong to Jesus

Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God

and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace

from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

(Romans 1:2-7)

Paul, using the world’s longest run-on sentence, (I

don’t know if that’s actually a record, so don’t

quote me on this,) surveys the entire gospel in the

first sentence of his letter to the Romans.

He identifies Jesus as a man of flesh who has

descended (as per the prophecies) from the line of

David. At the same time, He is the Son of God.

He identifies Jesus as being our source of grace

through his crucifixion.

He identifies Jesus as having been raised from the

dead.

These are a snapshot of the gospel - the pathway

to being right with God.

Paul goes on to speak specifically to the people of

Rome. He encourages them, tells them that he is

praying for them, and shares how badly he would

like to be with them in Rome. He finishes this part of

his introduction by telling them how excited he is to

preach the gospel to them.

Paul is excited about preaching the gospel to the

Romans. This is because the gospel is good news!

Paul is anxious to spell out the path to being right

with God.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the

power of God for salvation to everyone who

believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For

in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith

for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by

faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

Herein lays the crux of Paul’s message and the

challenge I have for our congregation. As

Christians, (more specifically Canadian Christians,)

we are almost apologetic for bothering people

with the gospel message. This is so completely

backward that it would be amusing if it weren’t so

sad.

Imagine a world dying from a disease. Imagine

that you have been offered a cure for this disease

and your life has been saved because of it. Now

imagine that you have been given an unlimited

supply of this same cure and you’re given the task

of distributing this life-saving cure to as many

people suffering from the disease as possible.

How would you go about distributing this cure?

Would you store it in your house and keep it to

yourself so that you’re not “bothering” anyone? Or

would you scream it from the mountaintops that

you have the cure to save people’s lives?

There is a reason as to why Paul is not ashamed of

the gospel. It is the power to save! But he’s not

offering a cure to live a little longer on earth, rather

he is offering the way to be right with God for all

eternity.

Granted, the major shortcoming of this analogy is

that people may not be convinced that they are

suffering from a life-ending disease. It is a little more

complicated to offer a solution to someone who

doesn’t see that there’s a problem.

However, this doesn’t change the stakes. As we’ll

see - in the next chapter - there is a problem we all

struggle with. This problem is sin and the

ramifications of this problem have eternal

significance.

Chapter Two - the Problem of Sin

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of

men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the

truth.” (Romans 1:18)

I don’t know about you, but for me Romans 1:18

conjures images of flaming meteors crashing down

on the helpless sinner. Unfortunately, one of the

misled strategies of past preachers is to scare the

hell out of people using imagery as I’ve described.

But we can’t ignore the fact that Scripture is

descriptive when it comes to the wrath of God. This

can become a cumbersome paradox for those

who know God as a loving God. In truth, there are

respected leaders in the Church who have been

so awed by His grace and love that they can’t -

and choose to ignore - any other aspect of God’s

nature.

For the sake of examining this portion of Scripture

and for the sake of setting up a clear

understanding of sin, I need to deviate from a

focus on the wrath of God and look more plainly at

that which stirs up his wrath.

Sin is a tricky business…

Sin is something that nobody in their right mind

wants to talk about. While some people love to talk

about other people’s sins, I have not encountered

someone with such masochistic tendencies as to

enjoy talking about his or her own sin.

I should clarify that… Nobody - who acknowledges

the nature of sin and the subsequent

consequences of sin - enjoys talking about his or

her own sin. Sin is generally a privately-run business

without advertising.

Before we go any further down the line, let’s talk

about what sin is. Simply put, sin separates us from

God. It takes us away from being “right with God.”

The self-advocating lawyer in all of us would

probably ask to see a comprehensive list of sins in

order to evaluate whether or not they could be

found guilty of committing any of them. But the first

step isn’t to figure out the list of sins, but rather, to

figure out why it is important to be right with God.

Understanding that sin is the barrier to being right

with God is only useful if you care about being right

with God.

Later in Romans, (6:23) we’ll see that the wages of

sin is death. This means that your payment for

sinning is death. More specifically, eternal

separation from God.

To understand the ramifications of this statement,

we need to first understand and believe that your

life is more than just the 80 or so years you’ll have

on earth. To fully appreciate the impact of sin, we

need to understand and believe that something

happens to us after we die.

To be blunt, when we die, we receive our

“payment” for the sin in our life. When I say “we” I

mean everyone. Romans 3:23 spells it out, “...for all

have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

Everyone who has ever lived has sinned. Everyone

who has ever sinned deserves the death penalty.

When we look at it this way, it is clear to see that

we’re not talking about some small thing. So, (as I

mentioned earlier,) if we understand sin and its

eternal implications, we’re likely to take sin very

seriously.

Taking sin seriously can look differently for different

people. Some are fearful of sin to the point of

being

Law-worshipers. They are (justifiably) so unsettled

with sin that they will take extreme measures to

avoid it and will be OCD in their attempts to

cleanse themselves of sin. These sin-fearers are (in

my opinion) few and far-between. While running

from sin is good practice for anybody, this

framework for “dealing with sin” will often lead to a

judgmental spirit against those who aren’t as

militant in the war on sin. This person is your classic

Pharisee.

The Pharisee can be distracted by the Law to the

point where they miss the point of the Law. Jesus

simplified the Old Covenant Law to address the

spirit of the Law which fell into two “new” laws.

We’re told to love God more than anything.

Second, we’re told to love others as much as we

love ourselves. An overvaluation of the “thou shalt

nots” has a tendency to cause an undervaluation

of loving others.

A second response to sin is the guilt-bearer. The

enemy is quite familiar with sin. (duh) He loves to

dig up your sin and put it on your fireplace mantle

or car dashboard for you to remember. He loves to

whisper guilt in your ear to remind you of your sins

and how they’ve made you dirty and separated

you from God.

If you feel uncomfortable with your sin, that’s good.

If you get mired down and immobilized by the guilt

that comes from sin, that’s the work of the enemy.

The guilt-bearer’s reaction to sin can be a

tendency to not react, but just wallow.

Over time, we can become in danger of apathy

when it comes to sin. When the weather changes,

kids start showing up barefoot more often. I don’t

know about you, but when I was a kid, I had a

recurring experience where my feet were always

quite sensitive to stones and gravel at the

beginning of summer. However, after days and

weeks of running around in the yard, I developed

“summer feet”. My feet had become hardened to

that which used to make me feel uncomfortable.

Similarly, we’re often troubled by our sins at first.

Like the pebbles of Spring, we’re uncomfortable

and sensitive to sin. As we walk in sin for an

extended time, we’re more likely to become quite

used to it and relatively unbothered by it. This is

another problem of sin.

Our reactions aside, the problem of sin is that it

separates us from God. Moreover, there is

absolutely nothing we can do to fix this problem of

sin on our own. That’s bad news.

The good news is that God has a plan for dealing

with sin. It is the ultimate free gift that we will talk

about in Chapter Three.

Chapter Three - the Answer for Sin

(Note from the Author: This chapter is almost

entirely a collection of copied-and-pasted

Scripture. To be honest, I felt tempted to editorialize

more than I ended up doing. I found that I simply

wanted to restate that which Paul had already

said so eloquently. I have chosen the Message

translation of the Bible which already makes the

content so explicitly-clear. I would apologize for

using someone else’s words so much, but they’re

really, really good words.)

“But in our time something new has been added.

What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all

those years has happened. The God-setting-things-

right that we read about has become Jesus-

setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for

everyone who believes in him. For there is no

difference between us and them in this. Since

we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as

sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are

utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God

wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity

he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift.

He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us

to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it

by means of Jesus Christ.

God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to

clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in

the clear. God decided on this course of action in

full view of the public—to set the world in the clear

with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally

taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured.

This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current

history! God sets things right. He also makes it

possible for us to live in his rightness.” (Romans 3:21-

26 MSG)

Jesus set things right for us. This is THE answer to the

problem of sin. God “set the world in the clear with

himself through the sacrifice of Jesus…”

The companion-thought to the fact that it is only by

Jesus that we can get right with God, is the notion

that we are incapable of getting right with God

without Jesus.

“But by shifting our focus from what we do to what

God does, don’t we cancel out all our careful

keeping of the rules and ways God commanded?

Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting

that entire way of life in its proper place, we

confirm it.” (Romans 3:31 MSG)

This little nugget is an important cog in balancing

our behavioural responsibilities with the freedom

that comes with Jesus’ grace.

Ultimately what Paul is saying is that our actions do

not decide our rightness with God, but our rightness

with God, (as enabled by Jesus,) will inform and

inspire our actions.

“So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our

first father in the faith, into this new way of looking

at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got

God to approve him, he could certainly have

taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a

God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in

Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was

doing for him, and that was the turning point. He

trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be

right on his own.” (Romans 4:1-3 MSG)

Reconciling Mosaic Law and this new concept of

grace through Jesus is a recurring theme in Paul’s

letter to the Romans. This is a real curveball to all

that they’ve been practicing as Jews.

“If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you

deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift.

But if you see

that the job is too big for you, that it’s something

only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you

could never do it for yourself no matter how hard

and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-

it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer

gift.” (Romans 4:4-5 MSG)

Sheer gift. King David confirms this gift for all who

would receive it. Paul quotes David to hammer

home his point. Then, he describes the problem of

contractual promises.

“If those who get what God gives them only get it

by doing everything they are told to do and filling

out all the right forms properly signed, that

eliminates personal trust completely and turns the

promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy

promise; that’s a business deal. A contract drawn

up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine

print only makes sure that you will never be able to

collect. But if there is no contract in the first place,

simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you

can’t break it.

This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends

entirely on trusting God and his way, and then

simply embracing him and what he does. God’s

promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way

everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who

keep the religious traditions and those who have

never heard of them. (Romans 4:15b-16 MSG)

“The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us

right with God.” (Romans 4:25b)

Being right with God is most-often a reflective,

backwards-looking exercise. When we look at the

sacrifice Jesus made for us in order to be right with

God, we’re looking into the past. We’re looking at

what Jesus did - once and for all - to make us right

with God. We’re looking at the slate-wiping that

happened to our past sins.

Being right with God has an equal effect on our

present and our future! The way we approach life -

when we know the covering power of Jesus’

sacrifice - is changed.

“By entering through faith into what God has

always wanted to do for us—set us right with him,

make us fit for him—we have it all together with

God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not

all: We throw open our doors to God and discover

at the same moment that he has already thrown

open his door to us. We find ourselves standing

where we always hoped we might stand—out in

the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory,

standing tall and shouting our praise.

There’s more to come: We continue to shout our

praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles,

because we know how troubles can develop

passionate patience in us, and how that patience

in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping

us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert

expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling

short-changed. Quite the contrary—we can’t

round up enough containers to hold everything

God generously pours into our lives through the

Holy Spirit!

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He

didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He

presented himself for this sacrificial death when we

were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to

get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been

so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do

anyway. We can understand someone dying for a

person worth dying for, and we can understand

how someone good and noble could inspire us to

selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for

us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we

were of no use whatever to him.

Now that we are set right with God by means of

this sacrificial death, the consummate blood

sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at

odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our

worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by

the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at

our best, just think of how our lives will expand and

deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that

we have actually received this amazing friendship

with God, we are no longer content to simply say it

in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to

God through Jesus, the Messiah!”

(Romans 5:1-11 MSG)

Having our sins erased is a gift without equal.

However, this life-giving gift surpasses that of the

original death-dealing sin. It doesn’t just cover it off

to make our “eternal bank balance” to be zero.

Where our death-sentence, (as a result of our sin,)

was a one-shot deal, the gift of eternal life not only

defies death, but it promises a life where we’ll be

blessed over and over.

“You know the story of how Adam landed us in the

dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one

exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed

relations with God in everything and everyone, but

the extent of the disturbance was not clear until

God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this

huge abyss separating us from God, dominated

the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those

who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying

a specific command of God still had to experience

this termination of life, this separation from God. But

Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to

the One who will get us out of it.

Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the

death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of

people at the dead-end abyss of separation from

God, just think what God’s gift poured through one

man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison

between that death-dealing sin and this generous,

life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the

death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that

followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death

got the upper hand through one man’s

wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking

recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who

grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-

gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one

man Jesus Christ provides?

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it

wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and

death, another person did it right and got us out of

it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he

got us into life! One man said no to God and put

many people in the wrong; one man said yes to

God and put many in the right.

All that passing laws against sin did was produce

more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t,

have a chance in competition with the aggressive

forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus

grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is

threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it.

Grace, because God is putting everything together

again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life

that goes on and on and on, world without end.”

(Romans 5:12-21 MSG)

Chapter Four – What Now? (part I)

It only took mankind 3 chapters into the first book

of the Bible to bring sin into the world. Then, before

Chapter 3 even ended, God revealed His plan for

saving us from sin.

With the Bible’s plot presumably revealed within

the first 20 pages of a 1000+ page book, there

appears to be plenty of room for a well-conceived

dénouement.

While nothing about sin and Christ’s sacrifice or us is

simple or trite, the parallels in our own Christian

walk are plentiful when it comes to the time

devoted to “What now?”

To make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s

review the last two chapters of this sermon

booklet…

First, we have the problem of sin. It’s a two-fold

problem in that everybody is a sinner (Romans

3:23) and that the consequence for those sins is

death. (Romans 6:23) This is a big deal for which

there is only one answer.

Romans 6:23 finishes by saying, “…but the gift of

God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

This is the answer to the problem of sin. Jesus Christ

– the perfect sacrifice – died in our place so that

we could live eternally with God.

Ellis J. Crum penned the lyrics to an old church

song. It states the situation perfectly,

“He paid a debt He did not owe;

I owed a debt I could not pay;

I needed someone to wash my sins away.

And, now, I sing a brand new song,

‘Amazing Grace.’

Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”

So while everything seems tied up in a neat, little

bow – our debt is paid; we live happily ever after –

a lingering problem persists… we still keep sinning.

This is an ugly truth of humanity. If anyone says to

you, “Jesus saved me and I don’t sin anymore,”

they just lied to you. (Which is yet another on the

pile of their sins.)

However, if someone says to you, “Jesus saved me

and takes my sin on His shoulders so that I can be

free,” understands God’s grace.

So, “What now?” becomes a very important

question.

What happens now that our sins have been

forgiven and accounted for?

Do we never sin again? Well, if we understand the

intensity of the truth of our salvation, we’re likely

compelled to keep our noses a little cleaner. But to

suggest that we can simply put an end to sin in our

lives is naive.

Do we sin with impunity? Knowing that our sins are

forgiven and accounted for, are we free to sin as

we please, using the blank-cheque-of-God’s-

grace? Well, if we understand the intensity of the

truth of our salvation, we’re likely compelled to

regard God’s grace with greater respect than that.

Chapter Five – What Now? (part II)

“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can

keep on forgiving?” (Romans 6:1)

Sometimes it can feel as though we’ve been living

out of a dumpster in Las Vegas, only to be rescued

in a limousine and driven out to the beautiful coast

of Oregon. While this is all good news, we’re faced

with finding our way in Oregon.

So what do we do? Do we begin the walk back to

Vegas? Knowing that we can be saved by the

limousine-driver, do we saunter back into sin?

Things should be different in our new life! We should

be excited about finding and following a new

path.

“You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time

the more you did just what you felt like doing—not

caring about others, not caring about God—the

worse your life became and the less freedom you

had?” (Romans 6:19)

It’s one thing to walk blindly into a mistake. It’s

quite another to know – full well – the mistake

you’re walking into.

“And how much different is it now as you live in

God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in

holiness? As long as you did what you felt like

doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother

with right thinking or right living, or right anything for

that matter. But do you call that a free life? What

did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now.

Where did it get you? A dead end.” (Romans

6:19b-21)

Hindsight being 20/20, we have the ability to reflect

on our life before Jesus made the eternal

difference. Most likely, (on close inspection,) your

life without Christ was more empty. [Note from the

author: This statement is loaded to the point of

explosion. Unfortunately, there isn’t the ink

available to address/qualify the statement in this

document, but I would never want to leave the

matter unaddressed. If you have questions or

comments, please email the author at

[email protected].] Most likely, your life without

Christ was more empty. Jesus was the answer to

the question you had for life.

With that in mind, choosing to return to that life

without Christ is not unlike a dog choosing to return

to his vomit.

As clear as the decision for reform may be, it is still

quite something to undergo the life-changes that

should follow a decision to follow Jesus. Not unlike

turning a cruise ship around, it is a slow and

intentional process.

In simplest terms, the key to life-change after your

eternal life-change is in your decision to make

Jesus your Lord as much as your Saviour.

We don’t have a lot of lords around these days. As

a fan of historical fiction, the authority of a lord is

not lost on me. The lord of the land holds authority

over the land and its holdings.

Similarly, when we choose Jesus to be Lord of our

lives, we choose to put him on the throne as

governor of our lives. This means that we’re to obey

His commands. While once, this was a legalistic list

of laws, today we’re given a two-command edict:

Love God more than anyone or anything and love

others as much as you love yourself.

This is the answer to the challenge of “What now?”

When we live with Jesus as our Lord, we put Him in

His proper place in our lives – on the throne. This

should affect our behaviour and cause us to

worship Him above anyone or anything else.

Likewise, we should be compelled to love those

around us as much as we love ourselves.

When we make a life-decision like this, we will see

the fruit in our lives. No longer will we walk ourselves

into the “dead end” mentioned in Romans 6.

Rather than walking back into another lord’s

kingdom on the streets of Las Vegas, we choose a

new path along the coast of Oregon.

[One final note from the author: the use of Las

Vegas and Oregon are gratuitous. Both the city of

Las Vegas and the state of Oregon are inert with

regards to their spirituality. That said, the people of

Las Vegas have worked diligently to cultivate a city

of “sin” which made for a simple, analogous sin-

kingdom. To be honest, I’m not sure why I chose

Oregon as the alternative. ☺]

Chapter Six – How can we know?

As if to anticipate our questions, Paul goes into

more detail about the assurances we have in this

life of faith. So far, he has written about our

sinfulness and the consequences of sin, the hope

we have as a payment for sin, and a guideline for

how to live life after new life has been found.

In Romans 10, Paul goes a step deeper to make it

even clearer as to where we stand by comparing

the life of faith to life under the law.

“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is

based on the law, that the person who does the

commandments shall live by them.” (Romans 10:5)

Mosaic Law provided a rigid, fenced-in area in

which to live.

This fenced-in area was a protected “reserve” for

the Israelites to live within so that they would

remain pure and safe from the harms of the world

outside of the reserve. It was the right plan for that

time.

“But the righteousness based on faith…” (Romans

10:6) states that it’s not about being inside the

fenced-area anymore. It’s not a game of

observing who is and isn’t safe in the “reserve”.

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in

your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of

faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess

with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, you

will be saved.”

(Romans 10: 8-9)

The gates of the fence have been thrown wide-

open. This would be a terrifying message to the

Jews who have held to the Mosaic Law for

centuries – proud in their safety and fearful of the

world outside.

Our protection – which used to come in the form of

fencing – now comes from the Word in our mouths

and in our hearts; the Word of Faith. If we confess

with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in

our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we

will be saved!

This transformative declaration is like being bound

by the oceans on an island, and then being given

scuba gear to allow us to breathe underwater. We

are no longer bound by what used to be our only

refuge. Now, we’re free to enter into the depths of

the ocean with the key to life God has given us.

If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we

have made a decision to align ourselves with the

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Under His

protection, we’re free to move about the country.

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and

with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the

Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will

not be put to shame.’” (Romans 10:10-11)

Paul goes on to reiterate that when he says

“everyone” he really means “everyone”. It doesn’t

matter what your walk of life is, what you’ve done

or who you are, EVERYone who believes in Him will

not be put to shame.

Can we take a moment to address a common

question of faith? I have had so many people

worry aloud about their state of salvation. People

have asked me how they can know if they’re

saved or not.

With all necessary patience for those who are

sincerely troubled by this question, I would argue

that Paul makes it all as clear as you could ever ask

for.

“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from

the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

This is the point of justification we discussed in

Chapter Three. This is the point where the course

set for eternity has been altered by 180º and you

are living a life towards eternity with Christ.

The process of sanctification we discussed in

Chapters Four and Five is the process of becoming

more like Him. The decision to submit to His Lordship

will inevitably change who we are and how we

behave. We’ll still struggle with the remnants of

living in that previous “kingdom”, but we’re not

subjects of that land anymore and do not need to

answer for our struggles there.

“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord

and believe in your heart that God raised him from

the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

If this seems too easy, or too good to be true, that

is because the salvation you’ve received is – in

essence – unfair. However, it’s unfair to your

advantage and it’s potentially unfair to EVERYone’s

advantage, which makes things all quite fair.

The real contention should be for those who

haven’t heard this gospel message - that they can

be saved by an unfair exchange of their sins for

their salvation.

“How then will they call on him in whom they have

not believed? And how are they to believe in him

of whom they have never heard? And how are

they to hear without someone preaching? And

how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

(Romans 10:14-15)

Herein lays the engine behind the Great

Commission. (Matthew 28:16-20) We need to go!

We need to move past the excitement and joy of

being saved and move! Our lives become filled

with purpose and that purpose is to do whatever

we can to tell as many people we can about this

salvation that is available to them.

Chapter Seven – Transformed not Conformed

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies

of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual

worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be

transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by

testing you may discern what is the will of God,

what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

(Romans 12:1-2)

Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice which is

holy and acceptable to God sounds like an

extraordinary task. How can we present ourselves

as a sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God?

Paul doesn’t leave us hanging. He gives us the

recipe for putting together just such a sacrifice.

We’re not to be conformed to the world, but

transformed by the renewal of our minds. Then,

we’ll be able to discern the Will of God to know

what is acceptable and perfect.

So the real question is, “How do we avoid being

conformed to the world?” The follow up question

would be, “How can we be transformed by the

renewal of our minds?”

When I consider the word “conform” my mind goes

to advertisements for bed mattresses. The sales

pitch always comes back to how this mattress will

conform to the shape of your body. The reason

that this is important to the consumer is that it

makes your sleep more comfortable.

Here’s the measuring-stick to see if you’ve

conformed to the world... Are you comfortable in

this world? More specifically, are you comfortable

with the culture of the world you live in? Does

everything just “feel good?” If it does, I would

suggest that you’ve conformed to the world.

It’s interesting… there are several hot button topics

(which I won’t distract you with by giving specifics)

which are clearly in conflict with what we learn in

the Bible. When you measure the ideas and

philosophies, political stances or morality against

what it says in the Bible, there is a stark conflict.

Culture, however, is like a boat floating at sea. An

inexperienced sailor will float on a changing tide

and not notice a thing. As the ocean rises and falls,

everything seems to rise and fall with it. Culture is a

terrible measuring stick in that it ebbs and flows

however the popular opinion takes it.

Measuring things against the culture is as absurd as

measuring yourself, year-after-year, by putting your

hand on your head and saying, “Hmmm… I’m the

same height as the day I was born.”

We need to have an absolute to measure

ourselves against. When measuring height, we

stand against a measuring stick or against the

marked-up door jam of your family home. We have

something to compare our changes to.

Sadly, many Christians today measure themselves

against culture. When culture is the lens by which

we evaluate life, we can become easily

convinced of non-absolutes. Because our cultural

lens has to change, surely, things like morality have

to change to “keep up with the times.”

Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewal of

our minds. This is the act of reflection back to what

we know to be true.

I am terrible at the board game, Clue. When I play

a game with my family, the last thing I want to be

doing is furrowing my brow and thinking harder

than I would be in school. I get easily frustrated by

the swirling clues left behind in the brutal murder of

Colonel Mustard. (Or was he the murderer? I’m so

confused.)

My wife has tried to tutor me several times. She

patiently explains that it’s a matter of accurately

recording what you know to be true. Sounds simple

enough, but I still don’t do well.

We’re called to do the same thing when we renew

our minds. If we return to what we know to be true,

our minds will be transformed away from

conforming to this world’s culture and will see

things the way they truly are.

This process of renewal may be simple but it’s not

easy. The noise of the world around us can be

overwhelming. Monasticism has the answer to this

in that a monk will simply retreat from the world.

This surely solves the problem of being conformed

to the world, but creates another problem in that

we’ve got no voice or impact in the world.

Returning to truth does not require a physical

retreat, but a “spiritual retreat” of renewing our

minds is essential.

Chapter Eight – Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

On May 29th, 2013, the incomparable Bob Cole

gave us the now-legendary words, “Relax

everybody... relax.” He was encouraging the fans

and viewers to sit back and await the results of a

review for an important goal in the Stanley Cup

playoffs between Chicago and Detroit.

It could be said that Paul gave us these same

words in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 14 is a chapter of two parts. In the first half

of the chapter, we’re essentially told to relax. “As

for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but

not to quarrel over opinions.” (Romans 14:1)

How much better off would we - the Church - be if

we could heed these instructions? On that vein,

how much damage has been done - in the Church

- by quarrelling over opinions?

Let’s be clear. Paul isn’t advocating a head-in-the-

sand, can’t-we-all-just-get-along mentality. He

goes on to give some examples of how we can

“relax” in some areas of our faith.

“One person believes he may eat anything, while

the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the

one who eats despise the one who abstains, and

let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the

one who eats, for God has welcomed him.”

(Romans 14:2-3)

As much as I - as a carnivore - would love to

highlight Paul’s reference to the “weak” person

only eating vegetables, that’s not the point. :) Paul

is explaining that this is a non-essential to our faith.

Similarly, he writes, “One person esteems one day

as better than another, while another esteems all

days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in

his own mind. The one who observes the day,

observes it in honor of the Lord.” (Romans 14:5-6)

Sandwiched in between verses 3 and 5 is the

explanation in verse 4: “Who are you to pass

judgment on the servant of another? It is before his

own master that he stands or falls. And he will be

upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”

(Romans 14:4)

This is an incredibly valuable (and transferable) life-

lesson we can all learn from.

Who am I to pass judgment on someone else? Who

are you to pass judgement on someone else.

We’ve got all the Judge we’ll ever need and -

ultimately - we’ll be accountable to Him.

St.Augustine once coined the phrase that John

Wesley used as his doctrinal mantra, “In essentials,

unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all-things, charity.”

While this isn’t canonized Scripture, it’s summative

with regards to Paul’s theology in Romans 14.

There are some things (which are quite few) that

we deem “essential” core truths in faith. The book

of Romans outlines these essentials quite vividly. In

these essentials, we either align ourselves or draw

our lines in the sand. If we’re not unified with the

essentials of Christian faith, then we’re simply not

Christian.

The non-essentials are another matter. These are

nuances in our faith which could become a part of

defining different Christian denominations. In the

city of Maple Ridge, (the city in which NorthRidge is

located,) there are many wonderful Christian

churches. Someone may ask why we can’t all co-

exist and become one, massive church family?

The truth is that each church has it’s distinctive

flavour. While we have unity in the essentials -

which allow the different pastors to meet regularly

for a very unified time of prayer for our city - we

may have distinctives in our non-essentials.

These distinctions between churches may be

doctrinal or even as simple as stylistic. The key is

that they’re not doctrinal pillars we’re talking

about, they’re doctrinal window-coverings.

St.Augustine does his best Bob Cole impersonation

when he says, “In all things, charity.” Just relax.

Too often, we burn out relationships in arguments

over non-essentials. Time would be much better

spent on other things.

As if to bring balance in anticipation of abuse of

the liberty St.Augustine speaks of, Paul writes,

“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one

another any longer, but rather decide never to put

a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a

brother.” (Romans 14:13) Before you choose to

gorge yourself on a bacon-

wrapped turducken and post the feast on

Facebook in an attempt to freak out your vegan

friends, consider the point of verse 13.

While we may be at liberty - because of the New

Covenant - to partake in certain things, they may

still be a hang-up for our brothers or sisters.

One of the most common cases of stumbling block

I’ve encountered is in the area of drinking alcohol.

Whatever your non-essential view of alcohol

consumption may be, we should agree that if you

choose to drink alongside a brother or sister who

struggles with alcoholism, you are taking the risk of

being a stumbling block in their battle with alcohol

addiction. This kind of behaviour flies in the face of

our New Covenant calling to love our neighbours.

The issue isn’t your non-essential view on drinking,

the issue is that you’re taking the risk of causing

your neighbour to stumble.

“So then let us pursue what makes for peace and

for mutual upbuilding.” (Romans 14:19)

“The faith that you have, keep between yourself

and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to

pass judgment on himself for what he approves.”

(Romans 14:22)

In verse 22, Paul is discouraging us to check others,

and encouraging us to check ourselves. We are

considered blessed when we find no reason to

pass judgment on ourselves for what we approve.

While this may come across as smorgasbord faith

(choose whatever feels good) remember that Paul

is specifically addressing the non-essentials of faith.

In essentials, we must be unified. In non-essentials,

we need to just relax. In all things, we need to be

charitable in that some people are wrestling with

some non-essentials in a way that makes them

more essential than perhaps they should be.

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